Sara Orwig - The Wedding Wager

Now he could understand her frightened and unhappy aunt and uncle’s reactions. Only Ethan was oblivious to the emotional tempest swirling around him.

Realizing how fast he was driving, Jared eased his foot and set cruise control while his mind was still on Ethan. All the years of Ethan’s life he had missed, babyhood, toddler—it hurt, and he vowed that this distance was going to end as soon as possible.

He tried to think of ways they could share Ethan’s life. They needed solutions, not accusations and anger. How could they work it out to share their child, when they had such disparate lives, and while she was so furious with him?

In front of Megan’s ranch house, he spotted her car outside her garage. As he crossed the porch, she opened the door. “Come in, Jared,” she said.

He entered a wide hallway that he hadn’t seen for the past seven years, recalling the last time he’d walked along the hall and out the front door. He’d been hurt, his life had changed and he wouldn’t see Megan again—until this year. All because of her father.

He followed her into a spacious living area that was just as he remembered, with a huge stone fireplace, animal head trophies on the walls, a large gilt-framed portrait of her father, Edlund, on one wall and a smaller picture of Megan beside it. Leather-covered furniture filled the room, along with a wide-screen television and ceiling fans that slowly turned overhead. The polished wood floor held Navajo rugs. Window shutters were open. Memories crowded him—some not good.

She turned to face him. “Let’s get this over with. I hope you’ve done some thinking and that you’ve calmed. Jared, your life is too busy to give much attention to a child.”

“Your life isn’t busy?” he asked with cynicism.

“Of course it is. But I don’t travel the world or have much social life or have any lifestyle like you do, and my kiln and studio are at home, and my gallery is attached to the house, so I can be with him when he’s home.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Oh, please!” she replied. “You have an interest in him because of the novelty of discovering you’re related to him.”

His anger climbed. “Megan, I want my son part of the time, and I’m going to have him. Now, what can we work out?”

Frowning, she shook her head. “I can’t think of any feasible plan. You live and have your headquarters in Dallas. You travel the world. I reside and work in New Mexico and here. That makes it impossible for him to see you often.”

Jared clamped his mouth shut and jammed his hands into his pockets, turning to walk to the window and gaze outside while he mulled over possibilities of what they could do.

“I don’t see any hope for this, and I worry that you’re going to upset his life,” she said.

Jared whirled around. “I’m his father! If you’d told me, I’d have been in his life from the day he was born. If I upset his life, it will be only initially. Kids adjust. I expect to win him over, Megan. Can’t you see that it will be good for him to have a father around?”

She turned away, but he’d seen her frown and her teeth catch her lower lip. He walked up behind her and tried to speak quietly. “It’ll be better for him to have a dad who’s interested in him. There are things I can do with him that you can’t. Stop depriving him of a father.”

“Don’t act like I’m hurting him by keeping you out of his life!” she snapped, whirling around to face him, tears in her eyes.

“Megan,” he said, grasping her shoulders gently.

She twisted free and walked away from him. “Don’t, Jared!”

“We were in love seven years ago,” he said quietly, following her to stand close behind her. “We both were present when Ethan was conceived. I was in that bedroom, too.”

She turned again to face him, green fire flashing in her eyes. “Next, you’ll be telling me you love me,” she said.

“No,” he admitted, placing his hands on her upper arms and rubbing them lightly. “But I know we can be compatible, we have been, and we have some kind of electricity between us. You can’t deny it. I think you and I can find a common ground once more,” he said, trailing his fingers lightly along her soft cheek. “Our lives became irrevocably bound with Ethan’s birth, so let’s put our heads together and see what solutions we can find.”

“That’s because you’re the one searching for the answer to your dilemma,” she said, glaring at him.

He was tempted to kiss away some of her stubborn refusal. Her passionate response earlier seemed to let all her barricades crumble. His gaze went to her mouth and he battled the urge to kiss her and stop the arguing.

As if she sensed his intentions, she walked farther from him.

“One way or another, Megan, we’re going to work this out,” he said.

She turned to perch on the edge of a leather wingback chair. He sat in another, facing her. “I thought of several things when I was driving here.”

“I can well imagine,” she remarked dryly.

Annoyed with her steady refusal to cooperate with him, he tried to hang on to his tattered patience. He was unaccustomed to people saying no to him, unaccustomed to a woman being so unyielding with him. Knowing he had to work this out with her, he sat back in his chair and took a deep breath. “A large percentage of problems have solutions if people pursue finding them,” he said. “And want to find them,” he added. Megan wanted him out of her life and that of his son, but that wasn’t going to happen. There was no way he would stay out of Ethan’s life now.

“Have you even tried to think what might work out?” he asked.

“Frankly, no, because nothing would.”

He considered the possibilities he’d mulled over in the car while driving to the ranch. “Fine. You have him during the school year. I get him for most of the summer.”

“No! He spends one month with my aunt and uncle, who are like grandparents to him.”

“He can do that, and I get him the other months and during spring break.”

“I won’t do it, Jared. Ethan’s been so close with me. The first years of his life, I was home with him constantly. It’s just the two of us. He won’t want to go off next summer for two months and live with you.” She crossed her long legs.

“Not next summer, this summer,” Jared corrected emphatically, and she shook her head.

“I don’t want to share Ethan with you.”

“You’re going to,” he said lightly, knowing he would never give up. He felt certain the law would be on his side. Her stubbornness was driving his anger, and he tried to calm down and think of what they could do that would be acceptable to both.

“Here’s another idea, Megan. See if this is palatable. A marriage of convenience.”

“A marriage of convenience. You’ve already had one before,” Jared said, and Megan’s temper shot up.

“You’re only after Ethan to get my ranch,” she replied. “A marriage of convenience or any other kind would give you access to the ranch.” She shook her head. “Never!”

He stood and approached her, stopping only yards from her, his brown eyes harboring anger that buffeted her in waves. She raised her chin to meet his gaze.

“I’m not doing any of this to get your damned ranch!” he declared gruffly, and she knew he was fighting to hang on to his temper as much as she was. “I want my son!” he said. “Can’t you understand that?”

“Frankly, no! You don’t strike me as the daddy type. Not at all. You’re a well-known society playboy, a jetsetter, and I think you want Ethan to help get you access to my ranch, either because of the novelty of it or because you can’t stand to not control your world just like my father,” she said and his face flushed and she’d clearly pushed him to the edge.